One Life
by Jen Rock
Summary: Harper is trapped with a wounded Tyr after an explosion.
1. Default Chapter

Title: One Life, part 1/4  
  
Rating: PG-13, a little angst.  
  
Spoilers: None. Set during the first season.  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm just a fan.  
  
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Harper crouched by the open panel and admired his handiwork. Not only had he fixed the glitch in Andromeda's communictions system but he'd done it in half the time Rommie had predicted it would take. Harper 1, Rommie 0. Grinning to himself, he closed the panel and picked up his tools. He couldn't spend too much time gloating over his own genius. On a ship this size there was always something more to work on especially since he was the only one doing work that had previously been done by close to 50 crew members back when Andromeda had a full crew 300 years ago.   
  
At least they were in a quiet region when the communication system had gone on the fritz. There was nothing in the Ebron System worth seeing so no one came here unless it was in passing. In Dylan's time, the system had been home to a planet inhabited by the Efgira and the ku'Ort species. They had always been peaceful but after the fall of the Commonwealth, panic had broken out and a civil war started between the two species. Now there was nothing left of the planet but a hunk of lifeless rock. Harper had taken one look at the planet on the viewscreen and made an excuse to go belowdecks and work on fixing minor problems with the ship. The scarred surface of the rock reminded him too much of Earth although Earth was a little better off since it still had life even if that life was starving and miserable.   
  
As he packed away the last of his tools, he picked up the sound of footsteps approaching. He sincerely hoped it was Trance. Any chance to see her was always welcome. Or if not Trance, at least Beka or Dylan or Rommie or even Rev. Anyone but...his hopes were dashed when Tyr turned the corner looking impatient. Damn. Not only did the big Nietzschian make Harper a little nervous but he was also far too dismissive of the engineer and wasn't the type to engage in idle conversation.  
  
"Are you done yet?" Tyr snapped without preamble as though Harper were purposefully dawdling at the repairs. Harper suppressed the urge to sigh and roll his eyes which would only serve to further antagonize Tyr and nodded instead.   
  
"Yeah. The system needs a couple of minutes to process the repairs and then everything should be fine." Tyr nodded sharply and turned to go.  
  
"I'll inform Captain Hunt." Harper did roll his eyes as Tyr went back around the corner. It wasn't that he expected the Nietzschian to treat him like an equal as the others did. That would have been too much to ask but would it kill Tyr to be a little nicer? The occasional, "Good job, Harper," wouldn't hurt and if Tyr referred to him as "boy" one more time he thought he'd scream.  
  
He felt the sudden surge in the deckplates as Andromeda suddenly accelerated and changed course and before he could even wonder why, everything exploded around him. He was thrown into the bulkhead as the corridor was torn apart by the stress of impact. He barely had time to register the sight of the corridor crumbling before him before everything went black.  
  
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	2. Chapter 2

Title: One Life, Part 2/4  
  
Rating: PG-13, a little blood and angst  
  
Spoilers: None.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.  
  
Note: Any description of the ship's layout and technology is mostly conjuncture on my part.  
  
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Everything went black as the lighting system in the corridor was cut off. Harper suppressed the urge to panic. He'd never liked the dark. You never knew what might be hiding in it but now wasn't the time to think about that. He had to stay calm and assess the situation. He felt okay, there were a few bruised places where he'd hit the wall but he was relatively unharmed. There was a faint noise like a distant whistle that puzzled him at first. Then he realized it was the sound of air leaking into space and the panic started to rise again.  
  
"Okay, calm down Harper, you're going to be fine. You've gotten out of tougher situations." Talking to himself was a nervous habit but it made him feel better. He shifted his weight slightly to relieve a cramp and his boot nudged against something with a familiar clink. Crouching down carefully with one hand on the wall to orient himself, he touched the object with his other. It was his case with all his tools presumably still inside. The Divine must be looking out for him today. He opened it and fumbled through the tools blindly until his hand closed over the small pen-light he'd been looking for.   
  
Flicking the light on, he surveyed his surroundings. He was at the bend in the corridor standing in the corner. The hallway ahead of him where he'd been working was mostly a wreck. About ten feet ahead, the walls had crumbled inward blocking the corridor with a jumble of metal and plastic. The station he'd been repairing looked as though it had been damaged anew and several wires hung loose from the twisted panel. The whistling sound seemed to be coming from that direction which meant the blockage was probably the only thing preventing him from being sucked out into space. He shuddered at the realization of the near-miss and turned to look the other way.   
  
The walls there had some signs of damage but they'd held. Then the narrow beam of light found a sprawled form and Harper realized he hadn't been the only one caught in the explosion. He picked up the case and hurried to where Tyr lay. This particular corridor was mainly used for servicing the ship rather than passage so it ended in a ladder that led back up to the higher decks. Judging from the way Tyr was lying, he'd been climbing the ladder when the explosion happened and had fallen to the bottom.   
  
Harper approached cautiously. A wounded and possibly delirious Nietzschian could be very dangerous but he had to see how badly Tyr was hurt. The Kodiak appeared to be unconscious. There was a cut on his forehead and blood trickled down the side of his face. Harper crouched down and reached for Tyr's wrist to check for a pulse when the hand shot out and grabbed him by the arm. He tried to pull away in a sudden panic but Tyr's grip was too strong. The Nietzschian's eyes opened slowly and looked in Harper's direction. His eyes weren't quite focused and he looked confused. Harper stopped struggling.  
  
"What happened?" Tyr's voice was unsteady but clear.  
  
"There was an explosion, maybe from an attack. I'm not sure what happened but you're hurt. I'm no doctor but I'd say you probably have a concussion." Tyr blinked rapidly as though trying to process the information before letting go of Harper's arm. He rubbed the spot gingerly, sure there was going to be more bruising from the force of Tyr's grip but that was the least of his worries now. From here he could see up the ladder and it wasn't good. Apparently the ship's automatic defense system had reacted and a thick, metal plate blocked the top of the ladder. They were trapped and there was no telling if anyone would be able to get to them anytime soon. The others could all be trapped or wounded or dea....He cut that thought of before he could finish it. He had to believe there was still a good chance of being rescued. Tyr was his only problem now.   
  
Beka had made them all learn basic first aid for which he was grateful now. What was he supposed to do about concussions and head wounds? Keep Tyr awake and try to stop the bleeding. He remembered that much. He took his jacket off and tore a sleeve off carefully. Tyr barely flinched as Harper pressed it to his head. His eyes kept closing and he looked close to passing out.  
  
"Tyr! You have to stay awake. You can't pass out on me." Harper said sharply. The last thing he wanted to do was slap Tyr to keep him awake. Tyr was likely to react without thinking and knock him back down the corridor. To his relief, Tyr opened his eyes fully and looked at Harper with comprehension.  
  
"I need a...distraction to keep me awake. Keep talking, boy. That should do the trick."  
  
"Okay, what do you want me to talk about? Anything in particular?" This was good. Talking was fine. He could do that and he'd even ignore that "boy" remark and chalk it up to the concussion. Tyr was silent for a moment.  
  
"Tell me about Earth."  
  
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	3. Chapter 3

Title: One Life, Part 3/4  
  
Rating: PG-13, a little blood and angst. There are some disturbing scenes in this one but nothing too graphic.  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm just a fan.  
  
Spoilers: None.  
  
Notes: I wrote this before the season premiere where Harper asks Tyr to distract him from their situation with a story. Really I did.   
  
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"Tell me about Earth." Harper recoiled as though he'd been struck. He stared at Tyr, certain this was some kind of joke but Tyr simply stared back at him patiently. Harper shuddered and turned his head.  
  
"No. I can't."  
  
"Why not? It would be useful information if I ever needed to go to Earth and I don't need to hear your life story. I merely want to know what the conditions are like. It would help me to focus on something other than my current situation."  
  
Harper sat silently for several minutes, thinking it over. There were things he could tell Tyr without mentioning his past and he had promised to keep talking about whatever Tyr wanted. But his memories of Earth were so painful that it was difficult for him to even think about most of them let alone tell them to someone who wasn't even a friend. Finally, he nodded slowly.  
  
"Alright. I'll tell you about Earth. The first thing most people notice is the smell. The people who come to Earth temporarily usually wear respirators but people who are stuck there don't bother. The respirator won't last forever and eventually you'll have to just breathe in the pollution and the smell of decay." He didn't bother to mention that respiratory problems were one of the many health risks of living on Earth.   
  
"There are a few machines set up to filter contaminants out of the water but they're few and far between and most people drink whatever water they can find. Crops don't grow so well in the soil because of all the contaminants so food is pretty scarce. There are humanitarian deliveries from Wayist groups but there's never enough to go around. There are scattered medical centers but they're constantly overwhelmed and low on supplies. You're better off not even bothering going unless you've got something life-threatening and then there's usually nothing they can do." He shuddered briefly at the memory of one such hospital where people lay dying everywhere on beds, on the floors, or propped up against walls. Doctors were forced to ignore those they couldn't help in favor of those who might have a chance.  
  
"Life expectancy is barely 30 years but you probably already knew that. The environment's screwed up from all the pollution so sometimes it would rain for days and hundreds of people would just drown in the flooding. Or the temperature would stay over 100 for weeks and people would die from the heat. Winters were the worst. It was too cold to do anything. People would burn anything they could to get some heat. I... mostly lived in the warmer areas so winter wasn't as much of a problem but for those in the north it was really bad from what I heard. More people died from the cold than anything else."   
  
"Why didn't those in the north simply move south? It would enhance their chances of survival if they didn't have to contend with the cold." Tyr was still listening intently although he had turned his head slightly so he was no longer staring at Harper but was instead staring at the wall.  
  
"Oh they did. But the people in the south didn't like all these new mouths moving into their territory and there were a lot of fights between groups over food and land. Plus, migration helped spread certain diseases to other places so newcomers weren't welcome in most communities unless they had a useful skill. Or were a woman able to breed. Infertility rates were pretty high. Too much damage from radiation and pollution."  
The mortality rates for infants and children were quite high as well. He'd become inured at a young age to seeing dead bodies but seeing children dead or dying was always harder especially when he'd been one himself and had feared he wouldn't survive to adulthood. Tyr made a face and Harper knew that to a Nietzschian, infertility was a genetic death sentence and something to be feared. Harper changed the subject.   
  
"There aren't many people who go to Earth with good intentions. Mostly there were slavers or attacking Magog or Nietzschians. Other than the Wayists and a couple of other charity groups, visitors are not welcome. If you were on Earth, people would either flee, hide, or try to attack you. Weapons are mostly hand-made and crude but now and then someone manages to get their hands on a real weapon and uses it to secure resources for themselves. There's little loyalty except among small groups and families and sometimes not even then. It's everyone for themselves and you can't trust anyone, no matter how harmless they look."  
  
"That's sound practice no matter where one is and I..."  
Tyr stopped suddenly and an odd look came over his face. For a moment, Harper was sure he was going to pass out but then he realized it was worry. "I hear something from around the corner. It sounds as though the debris is shifting."  
  
"What? Oh man." Harper bit his lip and got to his feet. "I'll just go take a look. You going to be okay here in the dark?" Tyr glared at him and Harper backed off. "Right, that's just me who doesn't like the dark. I'm going."   
  
He picked up the light and carefully headed back down the corridor. He shone the light around the corner. It looked the same as it had before but now the whistling noise was louder and he thought he could hear a faint creaking sound as the metal was pulled by the vacuum of space.  
  
"This is not good. This is so not good."  
  
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	4. Chapter 4

Title: One Life  
  
Rating: PG-13, a little danger and angst.  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
  
Spoilers: None.  
  
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"This is not good. This is so not good."  
  
"What is it? What do you see?" Tyr's voice shook Harper out of his panic mode and made him turn and go back to the wounded Nietszchian. He crouched down again next to Tyr.  
  
"Umm, it looks like you're right. The debris is shifting. I don't know if it's going to give way or not. It might just be settling more into place. I really can't tell."  
  
"I have no desire to stay here and find out. Is there anyway you can contact the bridge?"  
  
Harper looked irritated. "Don't you think I would have tried that if I could? The comm systems were damaged again by the blast and there's no other way to reach the bridge."  
  
"Is the station you were repairing still there?" Harper nodded uncertainly. "Could you fix it a second time?"  
  
"I don't know. Maybe, but I don't know how much damage was done. It could take hours and I'd be working right next to the debris. It's crazy!"  
  
"What's crazy is sitting here doing nothing and waiting to die. Either try to repair the station or I will make sure the vacuum of space is the least of your worries."  
  
Harper stared at him in astonished fear. Tyr was still very calm, too calm maybe, but he'd said the threat with absolute conviction. And he was right. Harper had to at least try. He picked up his tool case, took a deep breath and headed back down towards the panel.   
  
On closer inspection, there wasn't as much damage to the panel as he'd feared. It would probably take him about fifteen minutes to fix. Trouble was, he didn't know if he had fifteen minutes left. This close to the debris, the whistle was even louder and the air was cold. He could see his breath as he worked and his fingers quickly went numb. He tried not to think about his remark to Tyr about how cold killed more people on Earth than heat. Right now, there were three things threatening his existence and cold was the least of them. Still, tools occasionally slipped out of his numb hands causing him to curse softly as he had to shine the light around to find them, wasting more time.  
There was no sound from around the corner and he hoped Tyr was just conserving his strength by not calling out rather than unconscious.   
  
After what seemed like an eternity, his efforts were rewarded as the panel crackled into order. Beka's voice came over the comm halfway through a message. She sounded angry and a little panicked.  
  
"...hear me? Harper? Tyr? Damn it, somebody answer me! Is anyone there?" Harper's teeth were chattering from the cold and it took him a moment to respond.  
  
"Beka? I'm here. What happened?" Beka let out a little yell of truimph.  
  
"Harper, I knew you were okay. Are you hurt?"  
  
"Nothing serious but Tyr's got a concussion. He needs help and we're trapped near the site of the explosion. I don't know how much longer we can last."  
  
"Alright, don't worry. Trance and Rommie are on their way to get you out. Just sit tight." He grinned in relief. Trance was coming. Eveything would be okay.   
"Harper, we hit a mine left over from the Ebron war. It didn't register on the scanners so we didn't see it until we were nearly on it and then it was too late to miss it completely. How bad is your situation down there?" He gave her a quick rundown of the damage and then Trance's voice cut in.  
  
"Harper, we're on our way. Rommie and I will be there in a few minutes but I want you to go back and stay with Tyr. You need to keep him awake until we get there."  
  
"But if I go back around the corner, I won't be able to communicate. I gotta know what's going on."  
  
"We'll handle everything. Please, just do this for me." Damn. She knew he couldn't argue with her when she asked him like that in that little pleading voice.  
  
"Okay, I'm going but hurry up, will ya?" He ended the conversation and went back to Tyr. The Nietszchian had his eyes closed again but he opened them when Harper approached. Tyr looked weaker and less focused.  
  
"They're on their way. Now where were we?" Harper settled down again and began talking. He talked about the settlements where there was little if any law and the worse ones where there was law dealt out by harsh men who tolerated no opposition. He talked about how most people didn't look up at the stars anymore because they represented an escape, a false hope for a better life somewhere else without mentioning how he himself had never stopped looking at the stars even now when he was in that better place. He talked for what seemed like hours and Tyr never responded. His eyes were open and now and then he would move slightly but Harper couldn't even tell if Tyr was still listening to him.  
  
Finally, his one-sided conversation was interrupted by the sound of clanking on the metal plate above him. It sounded like someone was manually opening the hatch and he jumped to his feet in anticipation. The plate moved aside and Trance's face appeared looking down at them. The hallway was flooded with light from above as she started to climb down.  
  
"Are you okay Harper?" He stared out her and then burst out laughing.  
  
"Okay! I've never been more okay in my whole life. You don't know how happy I am to see you, Trance." He hugged her as she made it to the bottom of the ladder. She smiled and hugged him back briefly before going to check on Tyr. Rommie followed her down. "You too, Rommie."  
  
"I need to get Tyr to the med-lab right away." Trance looked worried. Between the three of them and a couple of the robot drones, they got Tyr strapped to a stretcher and carefully eased him up the ladder. The drones were lifting the stretcher under Trance's supervision while Harper and Rommie guided it from below. Harper was half-way up the ladder when there was a horrible screeching noise from behind him as the metal finally gave way.  
  
The pull of the vacuum would have gotten him right then if he had not wrapped his arms around the ladder in a death grip. Rommie had been above him and he could hear her yell for him to climb. The vacuum ripped his breath away. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't move. The minute he even shifted his grip, he would be gone. It's not fair, the voice screamed in his head, I was so close! I can't die now!  
  
Something curled around his wrist and he managed to lift his head enough to see Trance reaching for him. Her tail was around his wrist and Rommie was holding her feet. Taking a chance, he let go and threw himself forward to grasp her hand. They connected and for a moment he was horizontal in mid-air as the vacuum pulled at him from one direction and Rommie and Trance pulled from the other and then his friends won out and he was through the hatch which was quickly shut.  
  
Harper lay there for a moment, gasping for breath and trying to come to grips with the fact that he'd survived. Trance helped him to sit up and waited for his breathing to return to normal. The drones waited patiently with Tyr as he was helped to his feet.  
  
"Thanks." He coudn't even express how much he owed them for their rescue but that one word was enough and they both smiled and helped him along as the drones led the way back to the med-lab.  
  
Epilogue...  
  
Harper lay back on the bed and tried not to think about how bored he was. Trance had ordered him to rest for three days to heal up from the bruises and emotional trauma of his latest brush with death and Dylan had seconded her order. Rommie and some of the drones were working on repairing the damage from the explosion. The first day was nice like a vacation but now he was just bored. As much as he sometimes disliked his workload, at least he was doing something then. At least, he could finally get back to work tomorrow even if he were only on light duty for a while.  
  
There was a chime at his door and he sat up quickly. At least a visit from one of the crew might relieve his boredom even if it was Rev come to lecture him about giving his pain to the Divine again.   
  
"Come in." Tyr stepped through the door. Nietszchian's healed faster than regular humans and Tyr bore no sign of his ordeal of only three days ago. He stopped a foot away and regarded Harper silently.  
  
"I didn't get a chance to thank you before both for your help and for the information you gave me so I'm doing that now. You did a good job, Harper. You saved   
my life. I won't forget that." Harper stared at him.   
  
"Uh, you're welcome." Tyr started to turn away. "Wait! Just out of curiosity, was there really a reason you wanted to hear about Earth or was it just a random topic?"  
  
"I told you why. The information is valuable should I ever find myself there. Also, I figured you should talk about something you know and it was either that or listen to you talk about mechanics for an hour. Get some sleep. You'll need it for tomorrow. There are a lot of repairs for you to work on. You're of no use to anyone if you're tired." Tyr turned and left then. Harper stared after him for a few minutes even after the door had closed behind him. Had that been actual respect he'd heard in Tyr's tone? And all it took to earn it was saving Tyr's life. Not too bad. Laughing to himself, he lay back and drifted off to sleep.  
  
"He who has saved a single life, it is though he has saved the entire world." from the Talmud  
  
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End file.
